Note: this article was originally published on April 26, 2013 as the third installment of my six part series for Mismanaging Perception on the unsuccessful campaign to fluoridate Portland’s water supply.

Alberta Street saw upwards of 700 clean water lovers take to the streets Thursday in opposition to fluoridation chemicals being added to fresh Bull Run tap water. The heated campaigns for and against fluoridation have been waging an all out war, though the pro-fluoride side has received far greater big-money donations from large business interests.

Gathering at the offices of Clean Water Portland, a mass of bicyclists kicked off the festivities early. Crossing the Willamette River, the riders stopped for a group photo in front of a new three-story tall billboard urging citizens of Portland to vote NO to fluoride chemicals next month. Ballots go out May 3rd and are due by May 21st.

The big box retailer is notorious for running mainstreet American mom-and-pops out of business by operating their massive warehouse-sized stores at a financial loss for years after opening. Once surrounding local competition goes out of business, Walmart jacks their prices back up. Where the hell else in a small town is everyone supposed to shop now?

Barring some personal or political tragedy, Hillary Clinton will be the next president of the United States. [edit: published prior to Bernie Sanders’ campaign launch] She would be the first female commander in chief of the world’s most violent and active military.

Like every other male president in my lifetime with the exception of Jimmy Carter, Hillary will almost certainly follow the time-honored tradition of ordering bombs to rain down on the cities of nations most Americans couldn’t locate on a map.

Let’s be honest, no matter who’s president, we’ll be at perpetual war. Like Frank Zappa said, the White House is just the entertainment division of the Pentagon. Hillary’s made it clear she’s more than willing to push the war-hawk envelope, however. VICE magazine didn’t hold back last August when they characterized her foreign policy as: “Already terrifying.”

Note: this article was originally published on April 11, 2013 as the second installment of my six part series for Mismanaging Perception on the unsuccessful campaign to fluoridate Portland’s water supply.

Wednesday night’s debate to discuss the pros and cons of adding fluorosilicic acid (aka fluoride) to the Bull Run water supply that Portland depends upon saw an excess of 240 concerned citizens pack the Matt Dishman Community Center’s auditorium. The event was sponsored by the Multnomah County Democrats. Moderator Teddy Keizer, Chair of the Mult-Co Dems opened the evening by thanking those in attendance for coming, then sternly warned the crowd that no outbursts or applause would be tolerated during the debate. “We will not ask you to leave, we will tell you leave.”

Observing the filled room, it wasn’t hard to notice that Clean Water Portland’s bright-blue ‘No Fluoride‘ buttons and shirts outnumbered “Healthy Kids Healthy Portland” blood-red buttons about 5 to 1. It seemed the audience present might already be in favor of continuing Portland’s 60 year tradition of rejecting fluoride of their drinking water.

Representing the pro-fluoridation side of the night’s debate was ‘Healthy Kids Healthy Portland’ (HKHP), a PAC formed after activists collected twice the required signatures to move city hall’s fluoride vote into referendum, granting the public a voice on whether fluoride will be added to their drinking water. The effort that gathered a staggering 43,000 signatures last fall was spear-headed by Clean Water Portland (CWP), who were on hand to present the anti-fluoride side of the evening’s debate.

If you’re in real estate, you know right now there’s nothing hotter than walkability. People are tired of driving stressed all day, hunting for parking. They yearn to walk to school, walk to the park, walk to the corner store. The idyllic American main streets that’ve been boarded up by Sprawlmart big box leviathans – well, they’re back, baby.

For as long as humans have enjoyed cities, the place where commerce took place and merchants lured patrons was along the street, not a quarter mile back from the curb behind an eye-sore parking lot. The arrangements and configurations of these store fronts was paramount to attracting business. Maybe you sold the same wares as a shopkeeper down the block, but if you could arrange your goods in a more eye-catching manner, well you just might end up bagging the sale they didn’t.

Shorpy.com has done a tremendous job corralling and promoting thousands of plate glass negative images from the Library of Congress’ millions strong collection from the turn-of-the-century and beyond. With the small collection assembled below, we see the intricacies and smallness of these store fronts. These were spaces designed to linger around, to converse with each other about. You’d be hard pressed to find anything of the sort outside a Target or Best Buy.

Note: this article was originally published on April 8, 2013 as the first installment of my six part series for Mismanaging Perception on the unsuccessful campaign to fluoridate Portland’s water supply.

With the amount of media blitzing that’s bombarded Portland’s airwaves, interwebs, and neighborhood front yards, you’d have thought the dual campaigns for and against fluoridating Bull Run fresh water had been going on for years. In fact, this fight started in earnest just last fall, when the consulting & lobbying group Upstream Public Health began closed-door meetings with city hall. In a questionable lack of transparency, Upstream’s pro-fluoride lobbying sessions were kept off the city council’s public calendar.

There was but one public hearing before Mayor Sam Adams and the rest of city hall voted unanimously in favor of fellow commissioner Randy Leonard’s city ordinance No. 185612 – authorizing and directing the Portland Water Bureau to add fluoride to public drinking water.

Leonard confirmed he received over 1,300 emails regarding fluoridation, mostly against his plan. But Leonard casually dismissed them, claiming he was comfortable making such decisions without a public vote. Well, the people disagreed.

With only 30 days to gather the 20,000 signatures required to enact a referendum on fluoride to allow a public vote, activists shifted into high gear. On October 11th, 2012 volunteers from Clean Water Portlanddelivered an astounding43,000 signatures to the Portland auditor’s office.

Depending on where you live, you’re either in the depths of winter’s maelstrom, or you’ve been enjoying a mild, temperate permanent fall with spring right around the corner. Few images inspire the urge to end hibernation like those of people on their bikes. Even for all-weather, year-round riders, spring is that magical time where ridership increases, rain pants disappear, and the bike life takes on a normalcy many yearn for year round.

The Pacific Northwest has enjoyed one of the mildest winters many here can recall. Only a few days dipped below freezing, along with some pretty wicked windstorms. There’s been little overcast, much fog, and a wealth of sunshine. Perfect riding weather.

It’s been ages since Rebel Metropolis put together a collection of bikey images from Tumblr, likely proof of this great weather failing to induce the usual hermiting instinct most winters do. Like previous photo sets displayed here, all images link to their source. Hopefully browsing the city cycling scenes below inspires you to ride just a tiny bit more, or begin this year a wee bit earlier than usual.

This September, a few noteworthy news stories broke that seemed to escape public consciousness. One was on Portland winning global honors for it’s Climate Action Plan.

From a city press release: “Portland is among 10 cities worldwide to receive the C40City Climate Leadership Awards 2014. Portland is developing ‘complete neighborhoods’ to give all residents safe and convenient access to the goods and services needed in daily life. In 2012, 45 percent of the Portland population lived in complete neighborhoods, a figure which the city aims to raise to 80 percent by 2035. The city’s ambitious and successful initiative shows a unique and valuable pathway to sustainable, resilient, and low carbon communities.”

Naturally, our mayor Charlie Hales seized the moment to pat his city on the back, “Portland stands proudly alongside the global megacities that make up the C40.We’re delighted to have the honor and recognition that the Portland’s Healthy Connected City approach has proven to be a powerful carbon-reduction strategy.”

There’s just one problem with his words here. When contrasted to other statements Hales has made, they ring totally hollow.

Last night saw an amazing local achievement within the justice movement for Ferguson and the supporters of Mike Brown, as well as opponents of police violence and institutionalized racism at large.

Portlanders, like most the world, have watched events unfolding in Ferguson closely. After a grand jury refused to indict Brown’s killer, riots broke out across the nation.

Portland is far too passive for lighting cop cars on fire. Monday night, though, our city did indeed march without the consent of the Portland Police Bureau, albeit briefly and with only about 200 protesters.

A large rally and sanctioned march was ordained by many elder clergy-members and organizations the police maintain a working relationship with. Some 3,500 people showed up, pensive, but calm. Speakers spoke, most of them over 50. Then we marched, briskly, but predictably, around downtown for something like twenty-five minutes. While several of the organizing groups were rooted in radicalism, this event was ruled by the clergy.

In recent days, numerous Portland Police Bureau officers have taken to social media to show their support for killer cop Darren Wilson, who in August executed an unarmed black teenager named Michael Brown. For anyone still believing Portland is somehow different, somehow immune from the racist institution that is law enforcement, here’s your wake up call.

Nobody should be surprised that a ‘Support Darren Wilson‘ Facebook page quickly garnered almost 100,000 followers, or that the bulk of its comments revolve around religious deities protecting killer cops from justice. Nobody should have been surprised that a fundraising effort for Darren Wilson – who has yet to be charged with a crime 100 days after his lethal act – was able to raise over half a million dollars.

But now we see, finally, the extent of hatred and callousness within our own local police force. It’s entirely evident Black Livesdon’t matter within the Portland Police Bureau.